DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.

A/N: Glad to see people are liking Katniss's letter, it took a long time for me to write it, wanting to get the wording just right. I have a new respect for novel writers, the amount of time it takes is astounding. And to the comment that will Galeniss have as much attention together as they have apart in this story? The answer is….yes!

Chapter 52-Letting Go

Gale heard the phone ring while continuing to sob, he decides to get up and answer as opposed to continue sitting on the floor and keep crying. He furiously wipes away his tears as he walks outside to the kitchen. He picks up on the 5th ring and says, "Hello?" trying to mask his tears as best he could.

"Gale is that you? You sound different" Dez says on the other line.

"Yeah Dez it's me. I was….napping in our bedroom. I'm still waking up."

"That's weird, you never nap" she says cheerily. "I am still out with my Mom, she wants to take me to dinner, just wanted to let you know so you don't wait for me."

He's relieved she is not coming home anytime soon. "Thanks for letting me know, no need to rush home, have fun."

"Thanks-love you" and she quickly hangs up the phone.

Now that he is up and no longer on the floor, he goes back into the bedroom and cleans up the mess he made. He takes the photos out of the frames he broke and places the photos on the dresser. After everything is cleaned up he goes and looks at himself in the mirror, his tears have dried and his face is no longer red. He leaves his apartment and quickly goes to a department store around the corner and buys new photo frames and a lamp. When he returns, he immediately places the new lamp on the nightstand and places the photos in the new frames. He looks around and sees no evidence of his earlier meltdown. He wonders if Dez will even notice the frames and lamp are different.

He fixes himself dinner and eats on the couch and watches TV. After dinner he takes Harper out on a long walk, hoping the long walk will help clear his head. He ponders over Katniss's words in the letter, trying to sort out his feelings. He wonders if it was a mistake that he became friends with her again, knowing there would be a chance he would get hurt again. He is hurt again, but not for the reasons he thought he would be. He never thought Katniss would confess that her only regret in life was not giving their relationship a chance, not that it was ever a relationship in the first place. He knows over the years he has regretted waiting too long to tell her how he really felt, that he should have told her before reaping day when she volunteered. He realizes it does no good to wish to undue things that cannot be undone. The tribe gave Katniss very knowledgeable advice when she was living with them he thinks to himself. He then thinks about her confession in regards to the day he got whipped, he becomes angry again realizing that Snow is the reason they were never allowed to be together. To know that she was going to stay with him, be his but that the Quarter Quell pulled her back towards Peeta infused an anger in him he hadn't felt since the days of the war. But he tells himself what's done is done. A part of him wants to go to Katniss, tell her that he still loves her, and that he's always loved her and will never stop. But he knows he has to let her go. Their time and chance to be together had come and gone. He knows things could have been different had he gone to see her in District 12 before Peeta came back. Even if she had refused to see or talk to him at least he could have said that he tried. He realizes both he and Katniss did not make the efforts they should have, her during their time together in District 13 and him after the war. He thinks perhaps she is right, things do happen for a reason in life and that it just wasn't meant to be for the two of them. He needs to finally let go and he knows that's why the tears fell as hard as they did when he read the letter, his sadness of the situation taking over.

When he gets back to the apartment, he sees Dez is home and waiting for him. She fills him in on the cake tasting and that she narrowed her choices down to four different type of cakes and wants him to go with her next weekend to do the final tasting along with food tasting with a caterer. He thinks to himself she is so focused on herself she doesn't notice he is not acting his usual self, continuing to chat on and on about the wedding details. He begins to wonder if her excitement is more about the idea of the wedding than the actual marriage ceremony itself.

He goes to bed early, despite her voiced disappointment that he won't stay up and watch TV with her and promises he'll make it up to her tomorrow.

The next morning when he wakes, he's surprised how much better he feels as opposed to yesterday. He thinks the saying 'tomorrow is a new day' has more meaning to him now. He spends the entire day with Dez, taking a train ride into the Capitol with her and seeing a new museum that has opened up. It was a history museum, each floor representing the history of each district so there were 13 floors total. They spend a lot of time on the 12th floor, him going into detail about the exhibits they look at. She takes great interest in what he has to say, showing emotion when he tells her about the more depressing aspects of life in 12, which was quite a few things.

When they get home, he cooks dinner for her and he's pleased to see her actually eat all of it. They end the night on the couch watching TV before heading into the bedroom. While having sex before they go to bed, he takes control and keeps her down on her stomach while above her, pressing his hand down on her shoulder, keeping her in place while he thrusts. He doesn't want her to see his face, in case his emotions take over again. He would not be able to explain to her why he is sad. If she knew the truth, he's afraid the slight progress he has made with her since Katniss's departure from their apartment would vanish.

After they finish, he bends down behind her and kisses her on the cheek, he hears her say, "Is that a new lamp?"

He inhales sharply and says, "Yeah, I was playing with Harper and I accidentally threw the ball too hard, breaking the lamp. I went out and got a new one."

She laughs and says, "You need to stop playing fetch with him in here."

He feels bad lying to her, but he knows the truth would only devastate her. While he loves Dez, her fragile nature concerns him. If they have children, he wonders how she would handle the harder aspects of parenting. But he tells himself they are nowhere near that point yet in their relationship.


5 WEEKS LATER

Katniss is nervous as she sits on the train heading to District 2. It is Saturday, August 25-Posy's birthday. She is heading to the Hawthorne's for her party. She is nervous because she has not seen or heard from Gale since she wrote him the letter. She knows he will be there today with Dez. Katniss had been invited by Hazelle, receiving an invitation in the mail. Katniss had written to Gale and the Hawthorne's when she first got to her dorm, giving them her address and phone number. Hazelle had also invited Katniss to spend the night if she wishes, so that her travel day is not so long.

When Katniss first arrived to her dorm the day before her orientation, she had a surreal experience. When she was given her key and walked into her room, she almost passed out. Recognizing the room from her first vision and later dream about Gale. It is the exact room she saw, the large bed, the small desk, and the window showing the ocean further out. She realizes that the vision she saw back at the burial ground was a vision of the future. It made her wonder what else was destined to happen.

She settled in pretty quickly, she met some of her classmates on her floor and while she kept to herself, was on friendly terms with everyone. The floor she was on had a kitchen for everyone to share, at times eating in the kitchen with her classmates. There was also a large lounge room for people to hang out and watch TV. She didn't spend as much time in the lounge, for the program was just as intense as she anticipated it would be. It was an accelerated program, the first 8 months involving classroom work, with the last 4 months doing a teaching experience in a classroom. Her anticipated graduation date August 31 the following year.

Class was from 8-4:30 each day, walking to the building from her dorm. Most of her evenings and weekends consisted of studying and doing her schoolwork. This weekend though she was looking forward to going away and taking a small break since starting the program at the end of July.

She arrives to the Hawthorne's at noon, helping Hazelle, Vick, and Rory set up. Rory had been able to get off for the weekend and arrived Friday night. While Rory was pleasant, he continued to keep his distance from Katniss, not engaging in conversation with her the way Vick was. Vick happily informs Katniss he passed the entrance exam to the military academy and scored high enough to train for the pilot program. He leaves next week for 6 weeks of initial training before starting training at his assigned location which he said would be in District 13. Due to the amount of free space in District 13, a lot of pilots trained there. Besides the military prison and military buildings, there are no other buildings in the District, still to this day.

At 2 pm the guests stared to arrive which included Posy's classmates, some of Hazelle's friends, and Layla, Vicks girlfriend. Katniss instantly liked Vick's girlfriend and felt she was friendly and genuine.

Posy arrived at 2:30 with Gale and Dez, for they had taken her out earlier in the day while the house was set up. While this was not a surprise party, Posy was blown away by the decorations, the food and the amount of gifts given to her.

Katniss stuck close to Vick and Layla while everyone ate. She wanted to talk to Gale, but he hadn't come by once, sticking by Dez the majority of the time. She watches as Dez periodically held Gale's hand and stealing kisses as they ate. She was surprised to see Dez actually eat. She tries not to make it obvious that she is watching them. Posy was busy talking and mingling with all of her friends and Hazelle socializing with her friends as well. She noticed Rory kept to himself except for when Gale approached him.

After everyone was done eating, Hazelle got Posy's cake ready and everyone sang to her. She watched as Posy blew out the candles, pausing before she blew them out. She then started opening her gifts. She got a lot of gift cards to her favorite stores and Katniss was happy to see that Posy liked the gift Katniss got her-a large sketch book and colored pencils to use for her designs. Dez got Posy fashion design materials as well, getting her a sample collection of different colors of yarn and buttons. Hazelle, Gale, Rory and Vick got her a group gift which consisted of a sowing machine and small work desk. Posy overwhelmed with all of her wonderful gifts.

The party ended at 5 pm, Katniss stays busy helping to clean up. She accidentally runs into Gale while moving some fold up chairs to the storage area downstairs.

"Oh-sorry" she says as she rams Gale in the side with her chair.

"You're okay" he says, not appearing annoyed that Katniss bumped him.

She decides to stop and quickly puts the chair down. She sees Dez is nowhere to be found and chooses the take the opportunity to talk to him. "How are things?" she says nervously.

"Okay, same old, same old. How are your classes?"

"They are going good, keeping me busy which I like."

"Do you like your dorm?"

"Yeah, it is pretty nice, it has a good view of the ocean."

"Good, I'm happy for you."

It is driving her crazy how formal he is being-not acting his usual self. "Gale-I" but before she can finish her interrupts her saying, "I read your letter, thank you-for being honest."

She can't tell if his thank you to her was a good thing or bad thing. "I hope I didn't upset you by what I said."

"You told me the truth, that's all that matters."

She wants to reach out and hug him to help gage his feelings, but before she could do or saying anything else Dez approaches.

"Ready to go?" Dez asks Gale wrapping her arm around his.

"You're leaving?" Katniss finds herself saying without thinking.

"Yes-we have plans with my parents tonight" Dez says, sounding annoyed. She begins walking Gale away when he briefly stops Dez and turns back to Katniss saying, "Remember to keep wearing your distress watch" soft enough for Dez not hear.

He quickly walks back to Dez, grabbing her hand and saying goodbye to his sister before leaving.

Katniss keeps to herself in the downstairs area allowing Rory to spend time with Hazelle, Posy, and Vick alone. Posy and Vick come down and visit Katniss playing a board game with her before heading back upstairs to bed. The next morning, Posy hugs Katniss tight while saying goodbye to her. Hazelle, who has continued to be friendlier with Katniss, encourages Katniss to keep in touch when she can.

On the train ride home, Katniss wondered when she would see Gale again, and if she did, would he be as distant as he was yesterday? She suspects he is indeed angry at her for what she said in the letter. She can only hope he can get past it-and continue to be friends with her in the future for she was scared they would drift apart. It is something that she always had reservations about, even during the rebellion, would they grow apart? She hoped beyond all hope that would not be her future.